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Arrow Dress for Quilt Market

I just arrived in Portland today for Quilt Market! Quilt Market is a trade show for the quilting and sewing industry to show off new fabric lines and products to shop owners and press. In addition to seeing The Fabrics (one of my favorite reasons to go!), I get to meet tons of great people who are all passionate about sewing. This may be strange for me to say as someone whose business is almost entirely online, but there is still absolutely NO replacement for meeting people face-to-face and talking shop in person. I have gotten invaluable advice, feedback and information at each Quilt Market I have attended, and this has really helped me grow my leetle business (which feels less and less “leetle” every day, actually). The other fun thing about Quilt Market this time around is that Cloud9 will be previewing Fanfare, my new line of flannels (coming in August), which I am BEYOND thrilled about, AND all of the Tsuru Geranium Dresses are here on display as well. Yay!!!

One thing that’s been really fun is making things to wear on the floor when I go. Almost exactly a year ago I was stitching up the very first Washi Dress in Rashida‘s awesome washi tape fabric the night before I left for my first ever Quilt Market. It wasn’t until I wore the dress to a Quilt Market event last spring and got so much positive feedback from everyone that I realized that maybe I should try to do a women’s pattern. When I got home, I started working like crazy on it. That’s where I was a year ago, pre-Washi-hype. It amazes me sometimes to think about that, in retrospect. It’s a little crazy, actually, how much has happened in a year, and I have to tell you that I feel nothing but gratefulness to all of you guys, for how you received that pattern and helped make it a success.

The Washi Dress is a pretty hard act to follow, but I did make a few new things to wear to Quilt Market this year, including this cute little dress that I wanted to show you today. Melody brought some samples from her new line for Kokka, Ruby Star Polka Dot, to Camp Stitchalot a couple weeks ago, and I ended up swiping a little over a half a yard of this awesome arrow print. I’ve been dying over this design (and, if we must be truthful, the whole line) ever since I first saw Melody’s sneak peeks on her Instagram. It’s debuting at this Market, so don’t worry…you will see tons of pictures of this in my Instagram feed. I’m also completely in love with the ridiculously awesome Staple Dress April made for Melody from the blue version of this print, too. Maybe Melody will wear them at the same time, and we can be twinsies. !!!

Anyway, when I realized I had just enough fabric to cut it down the middle and make a little dress out of it, I was suddenly crazy-inspired to design something super simple that would really show off the print. I wanted the lace yoke to be see-through, so I didn’t line it, just bound all the edges with off white voile. There are no closures, so it just pulls on over my head, but it’s roomy enough that it works. I hope this does the print justice. I also left the selvage visible at the bottom on purpose so that people could see Melody’s name and the name of the line, and I la-la-LOVE how that looks! That idea was totally a brainchild of my Michigan homegirls at the last local meetup, where I started working on it. You guys are awesome for suggesting that I leave it; I’m so glad I did!

This is way more leg than I will ever probably show with this dress, ACK. Hot-cha-cha, you guys {*a little embarrassed*}. I think I will be wearing it with skinny jeans underneath instead. What do you think? Do you love this print as much as I do?

I almost never post a comment, but that’s how much I love this dress! I’d buy the pattern too I’ve made several Washis and BBB Pants and love how clear your patterns are to follow, especially for a new sewer like myself! Cheers Rae!

I love this dress please make a pattern for it….. pretty please with sugar and cherries!!! Also I think leggings would be awesome with it (you have great legs but I know I’d be more comfy with something under too). Oh and your shoes are cute too

Loved this dress the moment it popped up on my blog feed. I think you did an excellent job of showcasing that print. I love the yoke details and the “hem” treatment too. Hope you have a blast at quilt market.

PS. I usually wear shortie dresses like this over skinnies too. Or short shorts that just peek out when I’m walking or bend over.

i really like this dress. Tops and dresses with lace yokes always catch my eye recently. And I do love that you left the selvage on. I always have to wear something under dresses and skirts that go up that high on my thighs. It seems like most people are totally fine with it, but I feel paranoid and naked. Lol. The fact that my kids like to get under my skirts also doesn’t help much.

I love the dress! I’ve never posted on your site before but I follow you all the time. I’ve made two of your Washi tops and just finished two more of your geranium dresses too for gifts. Your patterns are wonderful and so easy to follow – I only started sewing about 18 months ago but have managed to pull off tops I actually wear and dresses I’m happy to give as gifts! I really hope you sell one for this dress, its the kind of thing I love to wear and the idea of the lace top is really pretty

So so so so cute!! I love the print and I love the dress! I hope you’ll sell us the pattern… I still have yet to get a washi dress, but I did spend the afternoon sewing two more B-B-Baby pants for my little girl! Your patterns are so great!

Good lawd I love this arrow print, especially the gray-blue colorway. I saw it at QM and just couldn’t stop staring, both as a dress on Melody and as yardage! Love this dress, too!! And I now see what you mean about what you wear to QM making a splash – never have I been eyed up and down as many times as when I wore handmade clothes to Quilt Market!!

Oh please oh please oh please a tutorial for this dress!! It is nearly identical to a favorite dress of mine that my favorite dog shredded to bits on a not-so-much my favorite day years ago. I still dream about that dress, I miss it so much!

Its like you read my mind! You seem to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you can do with some pics to drive the message home a bit, but instead of that, this is wonderful blog. A great read. I’ll definitely be back.